Sorry, I’m not a professional philosopher but did study it at university and still retain an interest in it. I was interested to read this statement. “Many philosophers have been infected (often by later Wittgenstein) with the idea that philosophy is supposed to be useless.”.
I take that to mean you consider Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to be his better work. I do too and have been mocked for saying so when I was a student. I was taught by some very famous professors at a well placed university but I wasn’t much of a student, not the brightest crayon in that years box.
I agree, the professional philosophers look back at some fairly ancient text, but there is a reason for that. If you are building a car that is aiming to be better than everything else on the road you dont start blindly, you look at other cars and check their faults and build something that does not have the same faults. The aim of philosophy is not a combative sport. Its true aim is to build upon knowledge, but what knowledge is also becomes a philosophical debate. I prefer meta-philosophy and scientific method, I prefer igtheism to atheism and prefer Hume to Descartes. The old dead guys determine, in part how I think of the alive new guys. The old guys gave me a set of tools to dissect the work of the new guys.
Sorry, I’m not a professional philosopher but did study it at university and still retain an interest in it. I was interested to read this statement. “Many philosophers have been infected (often by later Wittgenstein) with the idea that philosophy is supposed to be useless.”.
I take that to mean you consider Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus to be his better work. I do too and have been mocked for saying so when I was a student. I was taught by some very famous professors at a well placed university but I wasn’t much of a student, not the brightest crayon in that years box.
I agree, the professional philosophers look back at some fairly ancient text, but there is a reason for that. If you are building a car that is aiming to be better than everything else on the road you dont start blindly, you look at other cars and check their faults and build something that does not have the same faults. The aim of philosophy is not a combative sport. Its true aim is to build upon knowledge, but what knowledge is also becomes a philosophical debate. I prefer meta-philosophy and scientific method, I prefer igtheism to atheism and prefer Hume to Descartes. The old dead guys determine, in part how I think of the alive new guys. The old guys gave me a set of tools to dissect the work of the new guys.